Buccaneers schedule analysis

Breakdown: Raheem Morris will make his coaching debut on a very big stage, a home game against the Dallas Cowboys. That's no easy task, but at least the game is at home. Things don't get much easier after that and the Bucs have the league's fifth toughest schedule, based on the 2008 winning percentage of opponents.

But the Bucs have a chance to stay in the NFC South race even if Morris' system takes hold slowly. They don't face an NFC South opponent until Carolina in mid-October and their other five division games come in the second half of the season.

They close with a pair of division games, at New Orleans and home with Atlanta.

Complaint department: The NFL bases its decisions on prime-time games largely on the appeal of teams. That means the Bucs don't have much appeal in the NFL's eyes. They don't have a single prime-time game. Every other NFC South team plays in prime time at least twice.

Stay tuned: We don't know which home game it will take place at, but the Bucs reportedly are going to open a ring of honor (Lee Roy Selmon's got to go in first) and wear there throw-back (orange and white) jerseys. We soon will find out which home game gets the nod.